Posted by admin on March 16, 2010 under 2. Fat Tuesday | 
First off, I’d like to say that I have always taken comfort in the fact that when confronted by the Pharisees about what to do with the woman caught in adultery, Jesus procrastinated! One of my spiritual guides once wisely told me “why put off until tomorrow what can be done the next day?”. I don’t mean to validate every form of procrastination, but there is something about letting a problem sit for a while.
Can we learn something from Jesus’ hesitation in the midst of this confrontation? Rather than directly answering the question posed, he waited in a kind of holy silence. He preferred to let the mercy of God “droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven” until it could have its effect. In our culture, where instant responses and sound bytes are valued, there is something countercultural and consoling about Jesus waiting in silence.
Along with last Sunday’s parable of the prodigal son, this gospel makes clear that the theme of Lent is mercy. The mercy of God is something we all know about intellectually, but do we know it experientially? And if we do know it in our own lives, how do we communicate it to those who are struggling with the reality of sin? Is simply restating it enough? One of the most overlooked parts of a homily–at least a component that I often overlook–is silence.
Fr. Peter Walsh, CSC is an assistant chaplain at Saint Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University
Posted by admin on February 21, 2010 under 1. Media Monday |
We have entered once again in the Lenten wilderness and if you are like me you are looking for some meaningful way to mark the season. Last year my husband and I gave up disposable packaging for Lent. Aside from toting a mug around to all my favorite coffee shops, it also challenged us to eat in more, buy in bulk bins for items like cereal and to forgo the unnecessary packaging many of our favorite items come in. In short, it was a long Lent, but a meaningful Lent. (We also gave up caffeine one year but we have both agreed not to speak of that again!)
Lent is a powerful season made more so by the way in which we choose to mark it. Once again this year our friends at Busted Halo have given us some great food for thought with their Lenten calendar.
From the site … “But instead of chocolate, alcohol or tobacco, what if people thought of fasting, prayer and almsgiving in a broader context? What if those disciplines involved practices like reducing your dependence on electronic devices for 24 hours (fast); contemplating the 1.6 billion people in the world who have no access to electricity for a few moments (pray); and spending the extra time you’ve saved on personal interaction with someone important to you (give)? Or what if people reduced their carbon footprint for a day by using less energy (fast); then reflected for two minutes on the magnificent gift our natural environment is (pray); and finally placed $1 in a bowl they’ve set aside to collect money to be given away to a favorite charity — perhaps one that plants trees — at the end of Lent (give).”
Check out the site at http://www.bustedhalo.com/features/fast-pray-give-2010/ and chime in below with a comment about how you are marking Lent this year!
Kathleen A. Byrnes is an Assistant Chaplain at Saint Thomas More Catholic Chapel & Center at Yale University.
